New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority has announced a general across-the-board fare increase, effective March 22, on New York City Transit, Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North, and MTA-operated bridges and tunnels. The average increase is 4%, less than the 7.5% previously envisioned; the MTA attributed the lower hikes to a better financial situation. However, some fares will increase as much as 10%. The "base fare" on NYC Transit, which not many users actually pay, will increase 10% to $2.75, but a single cash fare will actually increase from $2.75 to $3.00. Most riders, however, use multiple-ride or unlimited use Metrocards. For multiple-ride cards, the "bonus" for adding at least $5.50 in value will increase from 5% to 11%; the MTA says that the effective fare with the bonus is actually $2.38. Monthly Metrocards would rise by $4.50 to $116.50; weekly cards would go up a buck to $31. Express bus cash fares would rise by 50 cents to $6.50; the new Access a Ride paratransit fare would match the base fare at $2.75.

MTA commuter rail fares would also rise by an average of 4%, although individual fares will rise more or less, in order to keep the fares at an even 25 cents. If the increase works out to over 6%, it would be capped at 50 cents.

The MTA's announcement did not mention any increase in the Senior/Disabled Metrocard fare, which may remain at $1.25, which would be half the "base fare" rounded down to the nearest 25 cents. There will be no change in the one dollar fee for issuing new Metrocards.

Fares on bridges and tunnels are more complicated, because drivers can pay cash, or use the E-Z Pass electronic tag system. Here the MTA draws a distinction between E-Z Pass tags issued by the New York Customer Service Center, and those issued elsewhere, for example in New Jersey. Apparently, only New York E-Z Pass holders benefit from a discount, which can be substantial. The round-trip cash fare on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, for example, will go to a whopping $16.00, which apparently applies as well to non-New York E-Z Pass customers. Those who hold New York tags, however, pay only $11.08, except for Staten Island residents, who enjoy a price of just $6.60, which decreases even further if used more than twice a month. Similar discounts apply to other MTA bridges and tunnels, again apparently only for New York E-Z Pass travelers. The MTA says the purpose of the increasingly divergent pricing is to encourage the use of E-Z Pass, but again, apparently only for its own favored customers.

NJT has announced that,starting next Tuesday (January 20th), all trains will have "Quiet Commute" Cars until 8:00 PM on weekdays. Currently, trains running to and from Hoboken have them during those hours, but trains to and from Penn Station Newark or Penn Station New York only have them during peak-commuting hours. The change brings cars where a quiet atmosphere is request to mid-day service on New York, Newark and Atlantic City trains. This includes Midtown Direct trains running during mid-day hours.

Coalition Technical Director Stephen E. Thorpe, who has led the campaign for the expansion of a quiet atmosphere for riders, hailed the move as a positive step. There is more to be done, however. NJT should make a quiet atmosphere available to riders on all trains, including evening and week-end trains. Quiet conduct by riders should also be required as policy, not merely phrased as a request. The Coalition agrees that these policies should be implemented.

The story was also reported by Larry Higgs in the Star-Ledger (Jan. 16), who quoted Mr. Thorpe as saying he's happy that the service has been expanded; "My wish is to see every NJT train have a quiet car." But Thorpe also pointed out that the service is basically voluntary; he'd like to see it as a firmer policy. "I have been pushing NJ Transit to have clear and simpler language like MARC (Maryland commuter rail), which simply reads NO cellphone or electronic devices that make noise or loud conversation. NJ's language clearly couches it in terms of a request when they state 'Customers are asked'." According to Higgs' story, online media discussions reveal that some riders are unhappy with the situation, reporting that unruly riders refuse to quiet down even when asked. Train crews, for their part, feel caught in the middle, being expected to enforce what is not official policy. Meanwhile, NJT officials think the current arrangement is working just fine, based on customer feedback.

WNYC Radio reports that John Degnan, Chair of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, has announced that PATH (Port Authority Trans-Hudson) trains will continue to operate at overnight hours, at least for the foreseeable future. A report released by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had recommended that service between 1:00 and 5:00 in the morning be eliminated, as a cost-saving measure. The recommendation, found at pages 81 and 82 of the 99-page report, was the only one that would have adversely affected mobility in the region. It was not received positively by residents or elected officials in Hudson County, where PATH trains run.

The Lackawanna Coalition also opposes eliminating the service, and suggests that there will be an increasing need for late-night transit service in an around New York City, including on New Jersey Transit's rail lines such as the Morris & Essex Line.

Riders on the Raritan Valley Line (RVL) now can ride a train directly to or from New York Penn Station on weekday evenings, without having to change trains at Newark. The new service went into effect on Monday, January 12th. "One-Seat-Ride" service between the western terminals of Raritan and High Bridge and New York began on March 3, 2014 during mid-day hours. The new service enhancement will encompass four round trips that arrive at or leave Penn Station after 8:00 pm, although the last departure of the evening will still require a change at Newark.

We congratulate our colleagues at the Raritan Valley Rail Coalition (RVRC), which was formed in 1998 to advocate for one-seat-ride service to New York. The RVRC has campaigned for this service throughout its history, as its primary objective. They continue to advocate for such service on week-ends and during peak-commuting hours, and we join them in supporting that goal.

We note that through service in the evening was supposed to begin last October, but New Jersey Transit had difficulty funding the enhanced service. We express our deep concern that the new service was delayed by a lack of available funds, and we call on decision-makers of appropriate authority to make sufficient funding available to give New Jersey's transit riders a better level of service than they have now. They deserve no less.

It is our mission to serve YOU, as riders on New Jersey Transit's trains and connecting transit. We continue to pursue this mission, and we made progress last year.

We celebrated our 35th anniversary of service to you in April. The following month, New Jersey Transit Executive Director Veronique "Ronnie" Hakim presented us with a citation from the Board of Directors, Executive Director and employees of NJT, in recognition of our 35 years of advocacy for better transit. This is a singular honor, and I know of no precedent of a rider-advocacy organization being honored by a transit authority in that manner. Perhaps because of this honor, we are engaging in conversations with NJT managers more today than we have for the past twelve years.

We have made a difference to one of our communities, too. Mount Tabor in Morris County is a historic community where only a few trains on the Morris & Essex Line stop; most of them pass through without stopping. We are advocating on behalf of that community for better service, and New Jersey Transit has added four weekday trains to Mount Tabor's schedule recently. That constitutes an improvement in mobility for the Mount Tabor community. We will continue this effort until Mount Tabor has full service. With your help, we can improve mobility for you and your community, too.

After a media frenzy lasting almost two weeks, the Port Authority chairman on January 14 announced that a proposal to end overnight PATH service on weekdays was no longer under consideration. In a letter to leaders of New Jersey's Senate and Assembly, PA chairman John Degnan did not totally foreclose such a move in the future, but said it would not take place at any time soon, and then only after detailed study, consultation, and public hearings. The retraction of the proposal was widely reported, including by Matt Chabin in the New York Times (Jan. 15).

The governors of New York and New Jersey made headlines when they each vetoed identical, bipartisan legislative proposals to reform the Port Authority, saying they preferred to proceed along the lines of a report they had commissioned. But buried deep in the report, according to reporting by CBS, is a recommendation that PATH service between 1 and 5 a.m. on weekday nights be discontinued, as revenue did not justify keeping the system in operation. The proposal quickly drew fire from New Jersey officials in the area, who said that such a cut would devastate the booming economies of waterfront cities, and that the service was a vital one for workers who labor in the wee hours. Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop said it was one of the most foolish proposals he's seen in years.

Reaction from politicians swiftly followed. According to reporting in the Star-Ledger (Dec. 30), Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex), co-chair of the legislative committee investigating the now-famous lane closures at the George Washington Bridge, speculated that the PATH reduction proposal might also be explained as some kind of political retribution, against the mayors of Jersey City and Hoboken, whose communities would be directly affected by any PATH reductions. Port Authority Chairman John Degnan dismissed Wisniewski's suggestion as having no merit: "Absolutely none," Degnan said.

Riders on the Raritan Valley Line of NJ Transit have always had to change trains at Newark to reach Manhattan. New "dual-mode" locomotives acquired by the railroad make a one-seat ride technically feasible, but implementation has been slow in coming, as NJT pleads that the direct service would cost them money. A trial service began for some midday trains in March, 2014; now additional trips will run in weekday evening hours, according to reporting by Katie Lannan in the Star-Ledger (Dec. 19). Four trains will depart Penn Station on weekday evenings beginning January 12, with equivalent inbound service. The expanded service was originally scheduled to begin in November, but NJT budgetary constraints forced a postponement. Advocacy by the Raritan Valley Rail Coalition helped spark the transfer of $910 thousand in Federal congestion management and clean air funds to finance the new trips. The group's chair, Somerset County freeholder Peter Palmer, said "We're only halfway toward our goal of full Mid-Town Direct service" for all Raritan Valley trains.

In contrast, other lines which might benefit from direct service to Manhattan have not seen any new trains; lines on which this would be technically feasible include the Montclair-Boonton Line west of Montclair State University, the North Jersey Coast Line south of Long Branch, as well as the Gladstone Branch, which currently has only two rush-hour trains direct to Manhattan, with transfers (sometimes involving lengthy waits) at other times.

PATH weekend service suspensions to the World Trade Center and Exchange Place stations have ended; normal service will operate on Saturday, December 20, and in the near future. However, PATH said that addititional closures will be necessary in the second half of 2015. PATH also advised that closures may be necessary on its uptown line to 33 Street, also in the second half of 2015, due to a cable fire earlier this year. The recent closures on the downtown line to World Trade Center were made necessary by damage from flooding due to Hurricane Sandy in 2012, as well as installation of Postitive Train Control technology required by Federal regulations. PATH said that one of the two trans-Hudson lines will remain open at all times, and that alternative transportation options are under consideration for riders inconvenienced by the 2015 closures.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey took a significant step on December 10 in its plan to extend PATH rapid transit service to Newark Liberty International Airport, according to reporting by Paul Milo (with contributions by Steve Strunsky) in the Star-Ledger (Dec. 12). The agency awarded a three-year, $6 million contract to engineering firm HNTB Corp. to examine technical and compliance issues and come up with precise cost estimates. Current estimates for the project are in the $1.5 billion range, with construction estimated to take five years and begin in 2018. When completed, the project is advertised as providing a single-seat ride from the World Trade Center to the airport; NJ Transit and Amtrak currently provide direct service to the airport from New York Penn Station and other points on the Northeast Corridor and North Jersey Coast lines. (Precise details of the plan have not been announced, but observers believe that the new service would be only to the Newark airport rail station, not to air terminals; riders would still have to use the monorail people-mover to reach the terminals.) Praise for the plan came from NJ transportation commissioner Jamie Fox and airport advocacy group Global Gateway Alliance.

Meanwhile, United Airlines has questioned the use of Port Authority airport user fees at Newark Liberty, saying that departure fees, which the airline characterized as "excessive," are being used for non-airport purposes such as the Pulaski Skyway overhaul. The story was reported by Steve Strunsky in the Star-Ledger (Dec. 12). United is a heavy user of the airport, and said that the fees there are 75 percent higher than at JFK Airport, also operated by the Port Authority. In a complaint to the Federal Aviation Administration, United said that "the Port Authority operates EWR for its own benefit, contrary to the interests of the traveling public and the aeronautical users of the airport, imposing excessive, unreasonable, and discriminatory charges to generate huge surpluses that are siphoned off to non-aeronautical operations." United characterized the diversions as totaling more than $2 billion since 1994, and noted that the Pulaski Skyway was not even a Port Authority operation. One source of the Port Authority funding for the Pulaski Skyway project derives from the freeing up of $3 billion in Port Authority funding that had been slated for a new trans-Hudson rail tunnel, which was canceled by NJ Governor Christie in 2011.

Responding to riders' complaints, NJ Transit has scheduled classes on customer relations for their train crews. NJT already has a similar program for employees in its bus division, according to reporting by Larry Higgs of NJ Advance Media and published in the Star-Ledger (Dec. 3). Lackawanna Coalition chair David Peter Alan was quoted in the article; Alan said that he saw operational problems as more important, but that "I don't see how it hurts to have a refresher in customer service skills once and a while. Sometimes front line employees need a refresher. I'd give the crews high marks. I'd like to see the operational problems straightened out." NJT had a similar focus on employee training back in 2003 under then-executive director George Warrington, who called the campaign "back to basics."

There's no new trans-Hudson rail tunnel a-building. Riders to Penn Station cope with a basement labyrinth. Portal Bridge is falling down. But, by golly, the 46,000 daily riders on PATH who use the World Trade Center terminal will have a world-class station -- someday, even if it costs four billion dollars. David Dunlap, reporting in the New York Times (December 3), details how this flashy but extremely expensive addition to New York's transportation scene came about. Meanwhile, 13 years after 9/11, PATH riders still cope with an inconvenient temporary station. The now-predicted $4 billion price is twice what was considered when the futuristic design was adopted ten years ago; Port Authority executive director Patrick Foyle says that the agency never would have gone forward with the design had they known how much the project would balloon. But a $4.55 billion Federal "pot" for lower Manhattan transportation improvements proved irresistible. In contrast to the WTC improvements, PATH riders to the 33 St. uptown terminal number only ten thousand less than at WTC, and nobody's planning a new station for them; they just end up in the basement subway complex there. It's not even clear that PATH commuters will make much use of the new above-ground complex: it's turning out to be a high-priced shopping mall. The Santiago Calatrava-designed station was due to open in 2009; the famous architect, however, is exacting in his methods, and demanded expensive features such as column-free interiors and hard-to-source curvilinear steel pieces; luckily, an early design that envisioned a roof that could open was scrapped. The station could've been built more quickly if the No. 1 subway line, running underneath, could've been temporarily shut down, but that would've angered Staten Islanders who use it to access the ferry to their home. Constantly changing leadership, adjacent WTC projects that interfered with the new station's construction, and additional expenses to speed up the lagging project all took their toll. And attempts to limit the cost have seriously compromised the effect of Calatrava's design. Barring further setbacks, the station is expected to open in 2015. PATH commuters may not appreciate the shopping mall, but at least they won't have to endure a lengthy detour to get to their jobs.

Meeting Dates

The Coalition normally meets on the fourth Monday of the month at Millburn Town Hall, which is a short walk from the train station.
(Walking Directions)

If you are coming to a Coalition meeting for the first time, here are directions from the Millburn Train Station. If you are coming from New York or somewhere else east of Millburn, walk down the stairs in the building and through the tunnel under the tracks. If you are coming from west of Millburn, walk down the stairs in the middle of the platform. Cross Essex Street and walk on more block to Millburn Avenue. Turn right on Millburn Avenue and walk about three blocks to Town Hall, located at 375 Millburn Avenue. The side door, facing the parking lot, is normally open.